1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to conveyor systems for handling articles.
2. Description of Prior Art
In previously proposed packaging machines, where articles are fed in a random manner in two or more streams to a packaging station there was provided a separate packaging machine for each stream and a control for effecting the packaging action when the article reached a predetermined position in the machine. The use of individual machines for each stream however, is somewhat costly and the fact that the articles reach the machines with random spacing means that the machines are not always operating at their optimum rate.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved conveyor system.
It is a further object of the invention to control the arrival of articles to the packaging station so that the articles in each stream have a fixed, predetermined, spacing between them and so that each article in each stream is aligned with corresponding articles in adjacent streams. This allows a single packaging machine to pack each column of aligned articles in one action and to operate at an optimum rate.